Every parent wants their kids to be strong. For any kid to have an active and strong life, it is highly necessary that the kid has good bone health. It must be noted that bones form an important part of the child`s overall health. Parents must make sure that their kids have optimal bone health. This becomes even more important in countries like India and that is due to various factors like lifestyle, environmental and dietary etc.
There are various reasons for a kid to have poor bone health. These are
Nutritional deficiencies:
It is a fact that nutritional deficiencies are the major factor responsible for poor bone health in the children. For the bone health to be good, calcium and vitamin D play a huge role. The bitter truth is that the majority of the kids don`t have either of these or both also. Especially in the rural and poor urban populations, the average India diet has inadequate dairy products and green leafy veggies etc to provide calcium. The limited exposure to the sun would lead to poor levels of vitamin D. It is known that vitamin D is produced in the skin from exposure to sun.
Sedentary lifestyle:
When compared to the past, the kids now spend most of their time inside their houses only. This is due to the growth in digital technology. This results in a sedentary lifestyle. For good bone health, physical activity is very much needed for the development of the bones. Absence of physical activity in the kids would lead to weak bones in them.
No vitamin D exposure:
It is noteworthy that certain cultural practices also lead to poor bone health in the kids. There are some parents who keep their young kids at home during the early morning hours. As a result, the kid would not get exposed to vitamin D from the sun leading to deficiency of vitamin D.
Juvenile arthritis:
Some kids might get affected by arthritis and due to that they might have swelling in their joints, inflammation and stiffness etc. By this juvenile arthritis, bone development would get affected in the kids.
Delayed puberty:
Bone health would get affected due to delayed onset of puberty in the kids. It was brought out by a research study that delayed puberty might affect bone mineral density and this might lead to osteoporosis risk.